By Agencies
The release of the 2025 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) results at State House Nakasero has painted a picture of steady progress in Uganda’s primary education system, with notable improvements in English performance and sustained learner retention, even as most candidates remain clustered at the medium ability level.
Presenting the performance report, Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) Executive Director Dan Odongo revealed that 817,883 candidates sat for the 2025 PLE, up from 797,444 in 2024, representing a 2.5 percent increase.
The candidates came from over 15,000 examination centres nationwide, reflecting continued growth in access to primary education.
Performance trends were observed against a backdrop of consistent gender patterns.
Girls accounted for 52.4 percent of the candidature, compared to 47.6 percent boys, confirming that more girls are completing the primary education cycle.
This mirrors the 2024 trend, where girls similarly outnumbered boys by a narrow margin, underscoring sustained female retention at primary level.
Most Learners at Medium Ability
UNEB’s item response analysis, which evaluates how learners demonstrate knowledge, understanding and application across subjects, showed that the majority of candidates—about two-thirds—fell within the medium ability level across all four subjects.
High ability learners, defined as those able to recall facts, understand concepts and apply them in new problem-solving situations, remained below 20 percent in all subjects.
English registered the highest proportion of high-ability candidates at 18.5 percent, followed by Mathematics at 16.4 percent, Social Studies and Religious Education at 15.9 percent, and Science at 15.6 percent.
Lower ability candidates, who show limited comprehension and difficulty in application, accounted for about 16 percent across subjects—largely unchanged from 2024—indicating stability but also highlighting the need for targeted instructional support.
According to UNEB, the distribution closely mirrors a normal curve, suggesting a balanced system with most learners achieving basic competency, but relatively few excelling at the highest level.
English Records Clear Improvement
Overall grade performance revealed English as the strongest-performing subject in 2025. Candidates scoring Distinction Two and above rose sharply to 10.1 percent, more than double the 4.9 percent recorded in 2024.
Those attaining Credit Six and above increased to 67.6 percent, up from 58.0 percent last year.
The overall pass rate in English defined as Grade Eight and above stood at 91.9 percent, an improvement from 88.3 percent in 2024.
UNEB noted that this marked English as not only the best-performing subject in 2025, but also the one showing the most significant year-on-year progress.
Social Studies Performance Declines
In contrast, Social Studies and Religious Education recorded weaker outcomes. Only 3.3 percent of candidates attained Distinction Two and above, down from 7.9 percent in 2024, with corresponding declines at the credit level.
UNEB described the performance as unfavorable when compared to the previous year, signaling an area requiring urgent pedagogical review.
Retention and Special Needs Support
Absenteeism remained low at 1.3 percent, unchanged from 2024 and lower than levels recorded in earlier years, suggesting improved learner retention from registration to examination sitting.
A total of 3,636 learners with special needs sat the examinations, an increase of 9.3 percent from 2024. UNEB attributed this rise to increased awareness and targeted interventions in schools.
These candidates received tailored support, including braille, large-print papers, sign language interpretation, transcribers, and additional examination time.
Overall, the 2025 PLE results reflect incremental performance gains rather than dramatic shifts.
While English stands out as a success story, the dominance of medium ability outcomes and declining performance in Social Studies point to the need for deeper focus on teaching quality, application of knowledge, and subject-specific support.
